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Confidence in the competence and integrity of the police has been undermined

September 25 2012, 1:01am, The Times

The police do a difficult and frequently dangerous job. The murders of PC Fiona Bone and PC Nicola Hughes in Manchester last week were an awful reminder of the price some police officers pay for protecting the public.

But that must not put the police above criticism. What we have seen in the last few weeks has raised serious questions about the South Yorkshire police force.

The report into the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 people died, confirmed that South Yorkshire officers made terrible mistakes in their handling of the FA Cup semi-final in 1989. What happened afterwards was even more shocking. The systematic cover-up by the police was, according to Lord Blair of Boughton, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, “the most egregious example of…